The Jupiter Laser Facility – Update · – Solid-state electronics rather than thyratron switching! • OPCPA pump laser! – Diode-pumped Nd:YAG heads replace lamp-pumped Nd:YLF!

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

The Jupiter Laser Facility – Update

Robert Cauble JLF Director

NIF/JLF User Group Meeting

February 9-11, 2015

LLNL-PRES-788672!

DOE-sponsored reports have made recommendations for research in High Energy-Density (HED) science

The reports all call for teaching HED science, broadening HED research, strengthening academic ties to DOE laboratories, and giving the broader community access to HED experimental facilities!

DOE-sponsored reports have made recommendations for research in High Energy-Density (HED) science

Access is difficult when the facilities are “privately held” or have astounding capabilities but are expensive!

The reports all call for teaching HED science, broadening HED research, strengthening academic ties to DOE laboratories, and giving the broader community access to HED experimental facilities!

aborption = emission

Jupiter is a multi-platform intermediate-scale facility for HED science

Mission •  Expand the frontiers of high energy-density laboratory science •  Support high energy-density science at LLNL in multiple programs •  Support, collaborate with, and expand the broader HED physics community •  Help train and recruit future scientific workforce

Approach •  Office-of-Science-style user facility at which laser time is provided free-of

charge and apportioned through an open, competitive peer-review process •  On a scale that provides significantly more laboratory access and greater

flexibility than large-scale laser facilities •  With a variety of platforms capable of front-rank HED science for different

classes of experiments •  And the infrastructure to safely support multiple users with a range of

experience levels

Jupiter users come from academic institutions and laboratories in the US and Canada,

as well as in Europe and Asia!

Russia

A number of organizations involved in HED science have active JLF users!

Other Institutes!LLNL!

Engineering!NIF!PLS!WCI!

Cal Tech!Colorado St!Columbia!Florida A&M!Harvard!MIT!Merchant Marine Acad!Ohio State!Princeton!Rice!South Carolina State!Stanford!Texas A&M!U Arizona!U Arkansas!UC-Berkeley!UC-Davis!UCLA!UC-San Diego!UC-Santa Barbara!U Colorado!U Dallas!U Maryland!U Michigan!U Nevada Las Vegas!U Nevada Reno!U Pennsylvania!U Rochester!U South!U Texas!Vanderbilt!Villanova!Washington State!West Point!

ARFL!Carnegie Inst!DTRA!Ecopulse!EMC!GA!LANL!LBNL!LLE!NIST!NRL!NSTec!NTF!SLAC!

AWE!CEA!CNR/Pisa!DESY!GSI!LNCMI Toulouse!JAEA Japan!KAERI Korea!Kentech!RAL!Rom Inst Phys & NE!

Academy Science Czech!Chinese Academy of Sciences!Ecole Polytechnique!Gwangju IST!Heinrich-Heine U!Imperial College!INRS - Montreal!IST Lisbon!Leibnitz U!McGill U!Nat Inst Nucl Phys Italy!Osaka U!Queen’s U Belfast!Russian Academy of Sciences!Shanghai Jiao Tong U!Tech U Darmstadt!Tech U Dresden!U Alberta!U Bordeaux/CELIA!U British Columbia!U Edinburgh!U Glasgow!U Jena!U Milano!U Oxford!U Paris!U Paris-Sud!U Pisa!U Quebec!U Rome!U Strathclyde!U Toronto!U York!Vienna U Tech!

Number of active JLF users continues to increase!

JLF now has 516 users, up from 489 last year!

LLNL!

Other!

University!

15%!

50%!

35%!

Most PhD students stay in the HED community; many stay at LLNL!

• 10 PhDs awarded to JLF student users! in 2014!

• FY12: 95 student users of JLF!• FY13: 117 student users of JLF!• FY14: 130 student users of JLF!• FY14: 137 student users of JLF!!

Selected 2014 publications

Selected 2014 publications

Staff changes – on the minus side

John Caird Control

Jim Bonlie Operations Manager

Gary Freeze Mech Tech

Staff changes – on the plus side

Rick Cross Elect/Mech Engineer

Kris Chubb Computer Scientist

Brent Stuart Manager

LLNL has permitted JLF to invest in new and improved capablities

•  New timing system!–  Greenfield master unit with fiber coupled delay generators throughout JLF!–  12-ps-rms jitter, compared with 400 ps for old SRS boxes!–  Switch to new system scheduled for week of 3/30/15!

•  Kentech drivers for 50-mm Pockels cells!–  Faster rise time, better prepulse extinction!–  Solid-state electronics rather than thyratron switching!

•  OPCPA pump laser!–  Diode-pumped Nd:YAG heads replace lamp-pumped Nd:YLF!–  Eliminates phase-conjugate cell!–  Old lamp-pumped heads can be used to increase Janus E&W alignment beam energy !–  Switch to new heads scheduled for week of 4/6/15!

•  Diagnostics!–  GigE camera network (with a few cameras to start) for shot-time diagnostics!–  Data acquisition hardware to standardize reading of shot-time energy meters!–  Forward and backward beam diagnostic at 34° mirror between β and γ disk amplifiers!

Next month we will implement the first f/10 experiment on Titan short-pulse beam

Titan normally uses an 1-m focal length f/3 final optic - OAP - that resides in the chamber!

We are installing a 3-m focal length f/10 final optic geared mainly to particle acceleration experiments!

Next month we will implement the first f/10 experiment on Titan

We are installing a 3-m focal length f/10 final optic geared mainly to particle acceleration experiments!

We are offering a green ps beam in Titan in order to improve pulse contrast

•  The ps beam in Titan is normally 1ω with a contrast of 10-5!

•  Three years ago we “borrowed” 2ω optics from the decommissioned HELEN laser at AWE for use in an AWE experiment requiring better contrast!

- sub-aperture so not full energy! - contrast of about 10-8!

•  That and a couple of follow-on experiments terminally damaged the optics, especially the final focusing off-axis parabola (OAP)!

•  We bought and coated a new green, full-aperture OAP! - we don’t have full aperture doubling crystal, intermediate optics, ! and spares, so still can’t run at full energy!• But a majority Titan proposals requested green!

Some clean up (30 years worth) has been going on

Comments from last year

• Excellent staff!• Good training for students!• Good place to develop diagnostics!• Exceptional flexibility!

Recommendations by JLUG

First and most important, stabilization of the Facility!

• Better reliability and performance!• Better reproducibility – reduce energy and timing fluctuations!• Decreased downtime – inventory of spare parts!• Increase in staff – to assist experimentalists!

The investment in JLF by the Director has allowed us to start addressing these issues!

Recommendations by JLUG

Facility improvements!

• Better laser diagnostics!• Better long-pulse shaping!• Increase in energy for Janus, Titan, and 2ω probe beams – new regimes!• Ability to split long-pulse beams – flexibility!• Second short-pulse beam in Titan – revitalize experiments! - increase energy and delay in split SP Titan beam!• Consider implementing Optical Science Laser (OSL)!

Recommendations by JLUG

Communication of information!

• Continuity between campaigns!• Create a JLF User Guide!• Updated info on website!• Electronic shot form a la Omega!• Create JLF Science Advisory Board to direct research and improvements!

Future of JLF

• We’ve made a start toward stabilizing JLF. To continue LLNL has to develop an institutional strategy for “lasers.” NIF the Facility and NIF the Directorate will naturally lead this; JLF must be part of it.!• The strategy will take some time to develop!• JLF is a key access point for HED research at LLNL. The future needs of JLF are defined by the users. The UG should assemble a prioritized document of need to be submitted to whomever leads the strategy effort – so it’s not just me talking. Be as specific as you can.!

- reasons for JLF to exist beyond the Mission Criteria (or emphasizing them)!- improved predictability, reproducibility, performance: what level required!- improved contrast in Titan: what level and why!- fs capability!- need for dual SP beams in Titan; desirable but expensive!- is there a case for operating OSL in a JLF-like model?!

We can count on NIF to help, to see JLF as supporting NIF, LLNL, DOE and the broader scientific community!

aborption = emission

CY2015 experiments will investigate a number of HED areas - Janus

!• Characterizing B-fields: measure B as well as ρ,T via Thomson scattering!• Plasma photonics: manipulating polarization with plasma; better understand cross-beam mixing !• Melting/vaporization during planet formation, shocking Mg-silicates and Mg-oxides !• Material strength and viscous plastic flow of Fe at high strain rates!• Effect of microstructure on strength of meteoric materials!• Strength and elastic effects in NIF ablator materials!• Phase changes in shocked potassium via SWORD reflectivity diagnostic developed on JLF!• Broadband CARS of shocked samples: diagnostic for structural changes!

CY2015 experiments will investigate a number of HED areas - Titan

• Relativistic magnetic reconnection in colliding plasmas!• Radiation and particle production in astrophysical shocks!• Control of hot electron transport using induced magnetic fields!• Highly collimated electron acceleration/x-ray production from laser-solid interactions!• Ultra-HED matter using nanostructured targets!• Proton acceleration using a cryogenic hydrogen jet target!• 100+ MeV ions using electrostatic shocks!• X-rays from self-modulated wakefield-accelerated electrons !

The End!